I'm working on a new book, and I'm about a third of the way through. I am really enjoying the book -- it's back on Qetesh, the world in which my first SciFi Erotic Romance took place. And I'm with a new sexy Alien, and a heroine who is trying to rescue her friends, and it's great fun.

So, why is it so hard to write?

I have an outline -- I know where I'm headed. I have characters that I love, that I enjoy throwing into situations that are tenuous or dangerous or emotionally wrought or sexy. So what's the deal?

I don't think it's the book itself, because I'm struggling with all my projects. I'm writing a play that I love, and those characters have stopped speaking to me altogether. I'm writing a YA novel -- I mean, I'm in the middle of it. I haven't written it in weeks. I mostly just sit down at the computer and wonder how to use words like a goddamned writer.

I know some days are harder than others -- that's part of the gig. Some days, I can pump out ten thousand words like it ain't no thang, and some days I feel happy to get to 500. But this week has been particularly tough.

Fortunately, today, I've had a breakthrough.

I think it was just a matter of how I was organizing my tasks. It's kind of daunting to put "WRITE A BOOK" on your to-do list. Here are the items I had on my list for last Wednesday (this is verbatim from my planner):

- Write SciFi Erotic Romance
- Finish Part 2 of [Redacted YA Title]
- Finish Act 1 of [Redacted Play Title]
- Finish Taxes
- Rewrite [Redacted Title of Another Play]
- Playwriting Class Lesson Plan [I teach playwriting at a local college]

The items I'd already crossed off were all freelance writing work for several clients, and the reason I was able to cross them off was because they were each 300-500 words of writing. Not ENTIRE BOOKS.

My breakthrough is that I'm not struggling with the actual writing, per se, but how I organize it. I'm not a bad writer, I'm just a bad list-maker. And it clicked because I did a google search for something inane like: HOW TO OVERCOME WRITERS BLOCK. And I stumbled across this amazing quotation: 

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” — Mark Twain

I'm not blocked. I'm not broken. I just mismanaged my list. So now, I am going to sit down and revise my tasks, breaking everything down into small, chewable pieces. So that hopefully I'll have something more than eye strain to show for a full week's worth of work.